[zoedragon]

Ever since the trend towards healthy living began, soy products have been pushed as an excellent alternative to various animal products. Its "isoflavones" are supposed to be cancer-fighting and its proteins are touted as being the perfect replacement for animal proteins because of no cholesterol. HOWEVER the soy industry is HUGE, and you can bet they have powerful interest groups everywhere as well as a very convincing marketing team. So my question is, how much of their hype can we believe?

The claims that the Chinese have been using it since ancient history is a bit distorted. They've been using it to revitalize their farmland since ancient times, not as food. Growing soy helps replace into the soil what their other crops take out. The only soy used as food had to first be fermented before it was edible because it has poisonous compounds in it.

Even in the U.S. in 1913 the Dept. of Agriculture labeled soy as an industrial product, not food. If you regularly use products such as soy milk, soy burgers, or soy ice cream, you may want to check out some of the articles found here:

http://www.mercola.com/2004/jan/21/soy.htm

Like partially hydrogenated oils, it's yet another fine example of the power of aggressive marketing to brainwash the general public. Sometimes I'm not so proud to be an American.